Letter about JW3

LAAS have written to the Prime Minister to express how unhappy we are with what happened at JW3, the Jewish community centre.

Dear Prime Minister,

When you became leader of the Labour Party, in your first speech you declared that you had closed the door on antisemitism. At the time Labour Against Antisemitism said we felt this was premature, but positive steps were taken to rid the party of that scourge, and we stayed quiet.

However, this past year since the massacre in Israel by Hamas on October 7th, we have witnessed a four-fold increase in antisemitism in the UK. We have seen Jewish students taunted and abused on campuses, peaceful memorials repeatedly attacked and hateful marches through our capital on a regular basis. 

But nothing has been as blatant and disgusting as the antisemitic hate-filled demonstration that was allowed outside JW3 - the Jewish community centre in Finchley – on the morning of 27th October. This rabble was allowed and supported by the Metropolitan Police to shout abuse and intimidate Jewish families going to a Jewish community centre. No other religious, ethnic or minorities community would be subjected to such hate towards their community.

As Prime Minister, you have set the tone and allowed an already unacceptable state of affairs to further deteriorate. It is not good enough to promise that school children will learn about the Holocaust when you are allowing Jewish children to be bullied on our streets. Once again, you need to put actions to your words and reassure the Jewish community that contemporary antisemitism, under the guise of humanitarian anti-Zionism, will not be tolerated. You must once again close the door on the antisemitism that the previous government’s inaction and your government’s policies have welcomed back on to our streets, making Jews feel unsafe and unwelcome in the UK. You are the Prime Minister; it is your responsibility.

Yours sincerely,

 Labour Against Antisemitism